Residents to be consulted on green belt homes plan

6 hours ago

Gavin Kermack

BBC News, West Midlands

Under the plans, 500 new homes will be built on farmland at Stoke Prior

BBC A view of a field on the other side of a fence which has barbed wire running along the top. Trees and hedgerows are on the other side of the field. — Under the plans, 500 new homes will be built on farmland at Stoke Prior

People living in a rural part of the West Midlands are to be invited to take part in a consultation on plans to build thousands of new homes in the area.

Bromsgrove District Council voted on Thursday evening to send its Draft Development Strategy, which details plans for 9,000 homes by 2043, out to public consultation.

The authority has to increase its housing provision and create the associated infrastructure in order to meet government targets.

The consultation will open on 30 June and run for 12 weeks.

With about 90% of Bromsgrove designated green belt land, the plans have proved controversial.

About a third of the homes would be built in Frankley, another 2,500 in the town of Bromsgrove itself, and more than 1,200 in Wythall.

Several hundred would also be built in Alvechurch, Barnt Green, Catshill, Hagley and Stoke Prior.

Many of the new homes would be built on green belt land, which makes up nearly 90% of Bromsgrove

A field with a small windmill generator. A number of sheep are standing around. — Many of the new homes would be built on green belt land, which makes up nearly 90% of Bromsgrove

"This consultation is to check the long-term strategy is on the right track," said Kit Taylor, the council's cabinet member for planning.

"As part of our duty to plan for these government-imposed future housebuilding targets, we are ensuring residents have this early and specially extended 12-week chance to say what they think the planning issues are, in an open and transparent way."

Opposition councillors on the Conservative-Independent-run authority had suggested residents should have been presented with a range of potential approaches to the building programme.

"This is the first sketch of what a plan could look like, drafted from the [more than] 400 sites for building suggested by developers," Taylor said.

"It's the start of a plan to keep our destiny in our own hands and in ways that we would want - not decided by developers and central government officials."